Pre-Production Work: Interview

This is the interview I will be including on my double page spread of my music magazine. The interview may have to cut down when I put it on my double page spread as it is quite long. I intend to ask questions about the bands recent success which I hinted at on my contents page, as a preview to what that particular magazine article is about. I don't have an exact plan of questions as each following question will depend on the response I get from the last question. My goal for the interview is to find out about the bands story of how they became famous and how the band feel about their success. 

My Interview: 

Hey, Chaska! We all know that QAR hit the road to fame since the release of your latest album, (Smash Fight) but can you tell us a little about the bands history before you got famous?

Hey! I formed Queen Anne’s Revenge back when I was 15 and in high school. At the time it was just a creative outlet for me and my friends Dan and Phil (drums and lead guitar) to relax and have fun. We were under a lot of pressure around the time the band formed from our school with exams, but this was just for us to forget about all that and focus on something fun for a bit. We only ever played covers of bands like Green Day and Fall Out Boy but we really enjoyed ourselves at the time!

So you started the band in high school? Now a few years later you’ve all recently finished college just last year, but quite a lot has changed since then. What happened between the time you formed in high school and now being world famous rock stars?

During our extended summer after finishing school we continued to play covers and we stated to meet up more regularly than before. It was at this point that I realised since our staring days we’d actually all bonded extremely well as a band an actually sounded pretty good! This was reinforced when the owner of our local pub asked us if we wanted to play a half an hour slot at a mini summer festival, and we of course said yes! We loved every second of our performance and the audience seemed to actually have just as much fun as we did!

Was it this performance which lead to you starting to support bands at local venues?

Yes, it was. At this time, we only had a drummer, guitarist and vocalist so we weren’t really in the best position to be playing proper live gigs. However, after our performance at the pub, a local guy who watched us and really enjoyed our set asked if we were looking for a bassist. We took this guy on trial and we all got along really well! This guy was of course, Chris who is now the bassist of the band today! Now that we had a full line up we really put 

in the rehearsal hours and started to apply for local support slots.

How was the experience supporting at local small venues in your home city?

Well, it turned out it was harder than we had first thought! It was a completely different atmosphere to the small pub show we had done, the difference being our small audience was actually made up of committed rock fans who would be properly judging us and not just out to hear a bit of live music. Playing covers is always difficult, because you want to get the crowd warmed up, and if they know the songs then its great and they’ll sing along. But sometimes really committed fans of bands don’t appreciate covers and can be quite critical.

So you hit a few rough patches whist first supporting?

Oh yes definitely! I think that every band has some bad first time experiences. One which will always stick out to me was the time we played a 20-minute support slot in Norwich. We played all our best covers with our own twist but we actually received pretty bad feedback from our audience. People told us they didn’t like our versions of the songs. We all left that gig feeling a little bit disheartened but that’s when the realisation hit me. That we should attempt to write our own songs, in our own style of music which we liked!

So this was when the true birth of QAR took place?

You could say that yes! We all sat down and had a chat about seriously trying to write our own music, it was quite a big commitment but we decided to give it a shot and spent a lot of last year trying to write our own songs. This was when Chris (bass) got into contact with an old friend of this who used to play guitar in his own band. He came along to some of our writing and rehearsal sessions and just never left! This of course in PJ who is are fifth member and rhythm guitarist!

So at this point you had all of you line up and had begun writing your own music? What next?

Well, once we felt confident again we went back to supporting at local gigs and we got an even better response from the audience than ever before! We now played a mix of our ow music as well as still a couple of covers. It was at this point that we started to get a bit of local recognition and were even asked to tour with some other small bands who we’d been friends with and supporting since we began playing gigs.

How did this lead to the release of your album Smash Fight?

After our tour at the beginning of summer we were asked by a local independent recording studio if we would be interested in recording an album! We were delighted that somebody had enough faith in us and our own music to record an actual album!

You released Smash Fight in November last year, and now its January and you’re one of the most successful rock bands today, how did this happen exactly?

After releasing the album, we promoted it as much as possible on our social networking sites. Our small fan base all responded amazingly to the album and somehow within a week we had a massive following. One of our fans tweeted Alex Gaskarth of All Time Low with a link to our album telling him to listen to it, and he did! He them tweeted about us and a lot of the All Time Low fan base listened to, and loved our music! It was after this that more people across the internet started to hear the name Queen Anne’s Revenge and listen to us. Somehow in the space of a view days we had gone from being an unknown local group 

to an internationally famous band!

Now that you’ve come this far, do you consider yourself to be a rock and roll legend?

Hahaha I wouldn’t go as far to say that! Not yet… hahaha. But it does feel incredible to have our music out there for a wider audience to enjoy. I think that one day I’d love to be able to have the same influence on my audience as one of my own inspirations had on me, Haley Williams of Paramore.

It’s been great talking to you Chaska! Do you have any final words to your audience, or to anyone who was in a similar position to yourself?

I’ve just got to say a massive thank you for all the lovely words of appreciation from everyone who has listened to the album! And if you ever feel like it’s too difficult to get into the music industry, whatever you do, do not give up! Just keep doing what you enjoy and one day you’ll dreams will come true in a similar to how ours have!

Pre-Production Work: Contents Page

I decided that a reasonable price for my rock music magazine, Amplified, would be £2.10. This because my audience research showed me that my target audience would be happy to pay between £1.00 and £3.99 for a weekly magazine, so I decided that £2.10 for a fought nightly magazine was a very good and affordable price. I think, that for £2.10, I have included lots of content and my target audience readers will get their value for money. 

Articles which will appear on my contents page:

FEATURES

ON THE COVER: Rising stars, Queen Anne’s Revenge (16) Chaska Holden of QAR spills the beans on the bands sudden rise to fame, and what inspired her to follow her dreams of becoming a rock legend.

That’s all before we look back on the greatest Rock Legends of 2015 (18)

as well as find out what Eddie Lee has been up to on his recent visit to the UK. (22) 

Fearless Vampire Killers take the Pointless Quiz (10)

And we look at the top 10 best album artworks of all time as voted by you (12)

NEWS

ON THE COVER: Reading Line up 2016 (4) We dissect the recently announced acts for the Reading 2016 line up so far and predict who else will be playing this year!

Good Charlotte to announce reunion tour? (7) It’s been 4 long years since Good Charlotte split back in 2011, but now they’re back and we’ve heard rumors of a new album and a celebration tour.

Pvris and Lower Than Atlantis join forces once again (9) as Lynn Gunn appears as guest vocalist on the latest LTA single.

The return of Paramore (14) after the sudden departure of Jeremy at the end of last year, Paramore have announced they are back, and stronger than ever.

POSTERS

Six fantastic shots featuring: Fall Out Boy, Green Day, Queen Anne’s Revenge, Mallory Knox, Muse and Blink-182 (24)

REVIEWS

Amplified got an exclusive listen to new Panic! at the Disco album, Death of a Bachelor to be released January 15th - it doesn’t disappoint (30)

Exclusive past and present ultimate album review (32)

The best merchandise in rock (34)   

LIVE SHOWS

What happened when Fall Out Boy hit Wembley

and Foo Fighters played a secret show? (36)

GIG GUIDE

ON THE COVER: Ray Toro Solo Tour - newly released tour dates from the ex-MCR guitarist. 

And all the upcoming gigs you NEED to know about (38)

Skills Development: Construction - Photo Shop

Using Photo Shop, I made my puff for the front cover of my music magazine. I scanned in my hand draw design and used the 'quick selection' tool to remove the background. I then used the 'paint bucket' tool to changed the colour of the different areas of the puff. I tested out lots of different colours but in the end I used red and yellow. I also used the 'paint brush' tool to make the edge areas of the puff darker black and lighter white. I then put all he different coloured puff designs on my magazine at the same time so that I could compare them and decide which colour looked best in what position. 

Skills Development: Construction - Photo Shop

I used the 'magic wand' tool in Photo Shop when I made the signature for my contents page. I got rid off the white background of my scanned in image and then I used the 'paint bucket' tool to make all the lettering as dark black as possible so that it would stand out against the grey background on my contents page. 

Signature Construction:

Before placing my 'magazine signature' on my contents page, I used Photo Shop to get rid of the white background and make the writing darker so that it would stand out clearly and be easy to read. This makes it obvious to the audience what it is. 

Puff Construction:

I hand designed a puff for my music magazine. I scanned in my  hand drawn image and edited the colours on Photo Shop. I experimented with lots of different colour combinations but my favourite was the red and yellow which I decided to use on the cover of my music magazine. This combination of colours doesn't follow the colour theme of my front cover, but that's okay as my intention was to make it stand out. This will draw my targets audiences attention to the magazine and encourage them to pick it up. The message on the puff is important so it's good that the bright colours draw attention to it. 

Hand Drawn Type Face

On my contents page, I decided to include an introduction to the issue of my music magazine. I finished the paragraph with 'Team Amplified', as if signing off a letter to my target audience who are reading my magazine. To make the message more personal, I decided to also hand sign the introduction paragraph. This will make the reader feel more connected to the magazine and could help to encourage them to buy it again in the future. 

Hand written signature designs:

My chosen hand written signature to put on my contents page:

I choose this design to include on my contents page as it is easy to read, and has clearly been written by hand. I also particularly like the little lighting bolt I included as it matches the magazines theme on the front cover. 

Hand Drawn Graphics

I decided to hand design a puff for my magazine front cover. My intention was to create a 'stamp like' puff with the purpose of it to inform the magazine readers that the main cover story is exclusive to Amplified. This makes the story on the front cover seem more exciting and interesting and will encourage my target audience to buy, it as they know they won't be able to read the interview anywhere else. 

My hand drawn puff designs:

My puff design I choose to include on my magazine front cover:

I choose this design because out of all my designs this one resembles a stamp/seal shape the most. I like that the puff looks like a seal as they tend to be found on important documents and letters. This then enforces the idea that this article is of extreme importance and will encourage it to be bought by my target audience. I will edit the colours on Photoshop so that it stands out on my front cover.

Skills Development: Construction - Photo Shop

I made my lightning bolts and explosion graphics on Photo Shop which were based on my scanned in, hand drawn sketches. On both of the original sketches, I used the 'magic wand' tool to take away the white background which left me with just the drawing which I wanted to use.  I then used the 'polygon lasso' tool to cut away at the edges to make sure that they were all completely straight edged. After this, I used the 'paint bucket' tool to change the colours of my graphics. For my explosions I just used black and white but for my lighting bolts I used the 'colour picker ' tool to make sure I had the exact same colours I used on my masthead. 

Skills Development: Construction - Photo Shop

I used Photo Shop to make my magazine masthead which I based on my hand draw design which I scanned in. First, I got rid off the white background using the 'quick selection' tool. I then began to adjust the colour of my masthead. To change the colour I had to open up the colour range and then use the 'paint brush' tool to change the colour. As i was using the 'paint brush' tool I could fade colours and have more than one colour on my masthead. If I had used the 'paint bucket' tool I would have been limited to using only one colour. 

Graphics Construction:

'Lighting Bolts' Graphics created in Photo Shop based on hand drawn designs:

'Explosion' Graphics created in Photo Shop based on hand drawn designs:

Masthead Construction:

I created my masthead by scanning my hand drawn design into Photo Shop and then editing it so that it was the right colour and size so that it would be appropriate to my chosen genre of music magazine, rock. 

After experimenting with different colours, I decided that I wanted to make my masthead red as this is a colour which is stereo-typically associated with rock related genres. I experimented with fading different shades of red together on my masthead as this would make it more exiting than just having one colour. I originally decided to make my masthead one layer but later decided it looked better with a shadow. This made my masthead stand out much more and looked a lot better on the page. Adding a shadow also gave me the opportunity to add more colours to my theme. I decided to use the colour blue as this matched the blue in the background of my photo and gave the masthead a three dimensional edge. 

My first masthead: 

My final masthead design:

Pre-Production Work: Hand Drawn Graphics

I decided that I would like to include lighting bolt shapes on my front cover to divide my cover lines, I think that lighting bolts are a good idea as they match the style of my masthead and follow my theme of sound waves and amplifying music. I also decided that I would like to include explosion type graphics on my front cover and double page spread which to make my cover story exciting. The explosion fits with the theme of the article and interview as it is about a new rock band who have come out of no where and become famous, similarly to how an explosion starts off as nothing and gets bigger. When drawing both of these I intended on scanning them into Photo Shop and editing them to give them a cartoon feel. 

'Lightning Bolt' Drawing

'Explosion' Drawing

Skills Development: Construction - Photo Shop

When using Photo Shop, I didn't use any tools other than the 'spot healing' tool and the 'crop' tool which are both on the tool bar down the left of the page. I used the spot healing tool to get rid of the writing on the street art and to take the design off of the models shirt. I used the crop tool to make the photo's the correct size for my contents and double page spread. 

Skills Development: Construction

Setting up a canvas: 


I had to set up an A4 canvas in Photo Shop to create my front cover. 

I also had to set up canvases in Indesign to create my contents page and double page spread. I used the same settings for my dps and contents page apart from the number of pages as I used one on my contents page and two for my double page spread. 

Edited Photos:

I planned my photo shoot so that the photos I took were how I intended them to look in my magazine. This meant I wouldn't have to edit them too much. Out of the all the photos I decided to use I only needed to edit four of them slightly so that they would  be appropriate to use in my music magazine. 

This is the photo I used as my front cover image. The only editing I have done to this image is make the shirt black instead of having the coloured pattern. This is because the colours on the shirt don't match the colour scheme of my front cover which makes the shirt look out of place. 

This is the photo I used on my contents page. The only adjustments I made to this photo was taking away the writing at the bottom of the street art on the background as it has nothing to do with my musician or the article. 

This is the photo I used on my double page spread. The only editing I made to this photo was again taking away the colours on the shirt as as they did not match the colour theme of the double page spread. I also cropped it to the correct size that it would fit on my double page spread. 

The final photo I edited I didn't use on my double page spread as I ran out of room. The only editing I did to this photo was getting rid of the text at the bottom of the street art in the photo and cropping the image to get rid of the unwanted background so that the only visible parts were the musician and the street art. 

Pre-Production Work: Masthead Designs

I decided that a suitable name for my rock music magazine would be 'Amplified'. I decided on the name, 'Amplified' as it has connotations of loud music, which is often a factor stereotypically associated with rock related genres of music. Also, rock music can be typically associated with lots of guitar sounds and to be heard properly, guitars need to be connected to amplifiers. Other names I considered for my rock music magazine included, 'Music Pick', which is based on guitar picks used by musicians and 'Loud!', as rock music is generally assumed to always be loud. I decided to use 'Amplified' however, as I think it sounds the best and most professional as well as has a deeper meaning which is linked to rock music. 

Initial Hand-Drawn Masthead Designs:

I experimented with serif and sans-serif influenced typography for my potential magazine masthead designs. 

I then experimented with different ways to present my masthead. Each one of these illustrations represent the idea of amplifying, and making noise louder. I experimented with the idea of sound waves, strings of a guitar snapping, an explosion and an input lead which connects instruments to amplifiers. 

After this I combined my favourite masthead typography and favourite masthead backings together to see which designs looked best. 

I like how my experiments turned out, and I particularly like the additions I added to the line running through the top masthead experiment, as this illustrates sound waves actually being amplified. Making the lines more pointed and jagged fits the 'rock image' more than the curved lines as they are harsher and heavier and firm compared to the soft gentle curved lines. I then decided that I would combine the amplified line backing to the third masthead typography experiment instead of having the explosion. 

I really like how this design looks and have decided to use it as the masthead for my rock music magazine.